On Wednesday, Bryan found himself with a random day off (well deserved, since they were underway for 8 of the previous 9 days, and he'd had duty on their one day in port, so he was stuck at the boat), so we decided to make use of our Disney passes one more time. They expire on Monday, and we're trying to figure out whether to renew or not. On the one hand, we only need to go up four times for it to be worth the cost, but then again, we don't know if we'll be staying in San Diego, so we'd have to get up there pretty much monthly. It's not that hard to do, we've certainly done it before, but we're still trying to make the decision. We hit up Storytellers Cafe at the Grand Californian Hotel for breakfast. We end up at Storytellers on pretty much every visit to Disneyland. After two years of annual passes (with an average of 8+ trips over the course of the year), we're maybe a little less impressed with the park food. Storytellers is relaxing because there aren't usually hordes of screaming children or bratty teenagers, the service is usually excellent (unless you get Gloria) and the food is pretty good, certainly better than what you'll round up in the park.

We got ourselves set up for the breakfast buffet, and soon discovered that it wasn't just breakfast, we had stumbled into a character breakfast! We were joined by Pocahontas, Chip, Dale, Baloo, Brother Bear and a raccoon whose name escapes me. Naturally, everyone (including the wait staff) gravitated toward Zach, who found the whole experience to be only slightly interesting. As they marveled about the fact that he wasn't scared of any of them and entertained him, Bryan and I were able to eat breakfast in relative peace. Mickey-shaped waffles and lots of hot chocolate with whipped cream (including a to-go round) later, we were off to the parks. Mid-week in mid-January was a perfect time to go, and I highly recommend either that or mid-October. The park was deserted (by Disney standards) and we were able to get on all the rides with at worst, a 5-10 minute wait. I think Indiana Jones was about 7, everything else was less, even Space Mountain. As a matter of fact, on a couple of times through Space Mountain, they weren't even assigning rows. Since Zach can't go on a whole lot, that made it easy for one of us to do some rides, switch off and then let the other person ride. Zach did get to go on Buzz Lightyear and Winnie The Pooh. The Haunted Mansion was closed for removal of the Nightmare Before Christmas overlay, but pretty much everything else was open. Over in California Adventure, we hit up Screamin' and The Tower of Terror. Pretty much all the rides at Disneyland and California Adventure were walk-on, so it was a great day in terms of being able to get on and off of rides!

One thing you should know about if you're going to Disney with a baby is the Baby Care Center. It's a godsend. The Disneyland one is located off of Main Street, tucked back between the Plaza Inn and the Photo Center. The California Adventure baby care center is in the Pacific Wharf area, around the corner from the Mission Tortilla Factory - that one's a little tougher to find. They both have nice padded changing tables, high chairs for feeding and a nursing area. They also sell diapers, wipes, baby food and formula, so if you run out of supplies, you're not up a creek. I have no idea as to pricing, as we haven't needed to buy anything while we've been there, but I have a feeling that when you need diapers or wipes, you'll pay just about anything to get them! The nursing area at California Adventure is more private - two chairs curtained off from one another - but Disneyland has a greater capacity, five or six chairs that face the same direction so you don't have to stare at someone else's boob while you're feeding your little one. Everyone's allowed in the changing and feeding areas, but only moms and babies can go into the nursing area. The centers are staffed, so there are folks to direct you to where you need to go and do some crowd control when the park is full.

Since I'll be returning to work in a couple of weeks, that'll limit our ability to sneak up there mid-week, but if Bryan gets a random Thursday or Friday off, we could do it. We'll have to talk about it some more, but I have a feeling we may end up renewing our passes. It's a little trickier to go to Disney with a baby (and Zach crashes at about 6:30 and just needs to go home and get to bed), but if we end up moving somewhere else, the opportunities to run over to Disneyland will be a lot fewer and more far between!